Monday, October 30, 2006

Classico is here! Tenacious D video starring Jack Black and Kyle Gass

Hey Everybody! Today is the official premiere of Classico. I drew it, Nick Cross did BG design and color styling and Copernicus did the Flash animation.Marc Deckter, Jay Li and Marlo Meekins also were invaluable as were Pringle and Kristen McCormick. And Kali Fontecchio too!

109 comments:

Holy crap that was an amazing cartoon! I'd wager it's even better than "Close but no cigar" but I'm not sure yet.

It's like that crazy 1930's rubberhose animal style if it evolved instead of died out in favour of chase cartoons in the 40's. The crwod are nuts, I can't wait to get the hi-rez one and freeze frame it!

I see a So-White/Dopey kiss, too!

Congratulations, you've pushed the boundaires once again and created something brilliant.

This is f*ckin' awesome, a real masterpiece!!! So much good stuff and funny drawings packed in just one minute... it's unbelievable. I watched it ten times in a row, and with each viewing noticed so many new details. The editing and use of color is impressive, and no matter how fast the action is, it's easy to follow it and doesn't look confusing (it's a lesson that many today's animation and live action directors should learn from you).Is it going to be included as a bonus on "The Pick of Destiny" CD? There is advertisment for the de luxe version of the album, so perhaps a bonus DVD will be included?And who did the background painting on "Classico_AnimalPainting.1.jpg" screenshot? It's absolutely amazing.

Great poses and expressions throughout, but some of the animation (Particularly that scene where the little devil fucks that duck in the ear) looked a little jerky, although maybe it's just the compression of the video. Still a great piece of animation, but I think I preferred 'Close but no Cigar', myself. Can't wait to see this in cinema!

Okay. Watch everyone come to your defense on this one.That was terrible.A one minute mess.The stills on your blog look amazing, but once it all gets in motion it is a mess.Not one gag hangs long enough to make you laugh.This is what you have been lending sneek peaks to for the last month or so???A one minute clip???

Noone else will admit this, I bet, but this is not your strongest work.

Wow, that was great. I wish it was longer! I like how the stage background had a more graphic Chuck Jones/Maurice Noble thing going on and the theater background had more rendered, dark and rich feel. Did Nick Cross do the backgrounds?

- maybe it gives college boys the incentive to act silly, go to a gig and stick fingers up each other's asses, and stuff like than. There's actually a game in Japan now (a popular game) whereby you have to aim to jab your buddy up the ass with two fingers... it's called 'Kancho,' and from what I've read, features in the 'another action anime' Naruto.

Is that a fleur-de-lis on the baseballsack? I love it, whatever it is. I thought I was going to have a seizure when the eggs starting popping out of that duck. (The little egg dance was especially delightful. It could be its own movie.) Great job!

And, **AHEM** Jorge Ignatz Wolfenstein von Garrido, YOU are under 18 and should have your eyes washed out with soap! Tsk!

That stampede you hear is all of Hollywood's development execs in a rush to licence "Kancho" as a CGI spectacle with a 200 million dollar budget. I can see those two brown fingers on the side of a bus now.

You made more of an impact in 60 seconds than big budget studio features have made in last 40 years. I keep playing the video over and over again. I'm not afraid of my brain exploding. I like it when it does that! Great cartoon!

Um.... well John had to pace the animation according to the rythym of the song which was quite fast. The only way he could have slowed things down at all was for him to ask the permission of Jack and/or Kyle to "slug" the song (adding pauses inbetween sentences) so that the slower people watching this can keep up.

Its interesting to see how you guys do pencil tests with cut-outs.. The video is great! Congrats to all that worked on this! Boy you all really turned this project over pretty quick. How long did this take John? A couple of months?

I keep watching it over and over again. The way Jack sings in the video is so specific to the song, you captured every little nuance. And the color is amazing. What happened to the cartoon where they are doctors, or something like that?

John,I was pretty disappointed in the content, so I guess that makes me one of those conservatives that don't want you to see stuff. Most gross-out humor doesn't bother me. I even listen to The D, but this cartoon took it too far for my tastes.

I hope you'll put your amazing skills to use on something all ages can enjoy soon.

I see John as the absolutely brilliant music teacher who has a few cds out of his own compositions that you politely accept and say were pretty good so he'll keep teaching you. (I.E. ripping friends)

My passion is comedy (mr. show, Peter Cook, Chris Morris, Mitch Hedberg, Stephen Wright etc.) that springs from interesting ideas and bizarre logic, And I see John K's opinions as being pretty useless in this area.

His dismissive attitudes towards shows like Family Guy and Aqua Teen hunger force remind me of cartoonists like Bill Griffith who completely trash comics like "The Far Side" and "Calvin and Hobbes" (which Im pretty sure John doesnt care for either) and then gush about how amazing Nancy and Gasoline Alley were.

It's very cool of you to share your work with us, especially pencil tests.

I hope you won't mind some honest criticism: to my eye the animation is a mess, lot's of fun poses but the actions are strobey and difficult to read. (I wish I could frame-by-frame to see why this is.)

Also, I'm not a big fan of the line quality that's coming out of Flash in this case; it seems so uniform and lifeless. I miss the organic rhythm that comes from hand drawn lines. I love the look of Kyle but for some reason Jack just looks poorly drawn.

how could i see the on 1's john? i also think it was to fast and plus the video was one minute long i was like..."what? where? when??" right after it finished. i couldn't apresiate all those great frame captures you posted. must be couse it's in 15's as you say 'couse after i saw it i watched the pencil test with just poses and they hold longer and it was way funnier for me.

John, I got to say. That must have been the best animation I've seen since "Ren Seeks Help."

That was Flash right?

How do you do your animatics?

I've noticed that your doing mostly mature adult entertainment now a days, but will you ever come back doing family entertainment like the original Ren & Stimpy? I really miss the surreal yet cleaver sillyness in the diologe and drawings.

And to ask you about the Preston Blair book, we're learning the drawing princables from it right?. And Creativity and style come last.

Those who find this video too fast or that the animation doesn't read might prefer "Spunky and Tadpole" timing and subject matter because it doesn't threaten their little heads, and that's fine because this is America. But if all of electronic media moved at this pace and with this refreshing attitude toward public nudity, there wouldn't be time to kill the next generation overseas for the purpose of corporate oil profit. Get the stick out of your ass, uninformed critics, and smell what looks like coffee.

Wow that's fast! I just started watching some Chaplin (never had before), which I'm finding very funny because of the apparent speed from the early camera technology and the really fast cuts. I was disappointed that your film was so short, but only cuz what's there is so engaging, and I'm greedy and I want more. I think some SFX would've enhanced it, if only because the song itself is instrumentally light. But great work! Keep 'em fast!

Yay! Now that it's online I can go show it to everyone I know. LOVE that title card- beautiful drawing/coloring. Did you paint it? They are just so gosh darn cute as cartoon characters- I hope that they will want more of this sort of thing from you.

Great job John, especially considering you drew every frame!

And yay Marlo!!!!! And yay Marc Deckter!!! Marc should get a big hug from everyone with his super organizational skills.

Jack and Kyle's song just put so many ideas into my head (and Eddie, Marc and Mike's) that I tried to fit as many as possible into the cartoon. I even asked if they could do an extended version so I could put a few holds in.

As it is I had to cut out a whole pile of gags.

I figured since people listen to songs over and over, that they would see this a few times and catch lots of things they might have missed the first time.

Maybe they'll give me a longer song next time. But I do enjoy a bit of hyper timing now and then rather than the typical slow TV pacing.

Animating on ones isn't the same as inbetweening down to ones. If you still frame through this cartoon, you'll find that just about every frame is a key drawing. There's nothing mushy about this cartoon.

>I figured since people listen to songs over and over, that they would see this a few times and catch lots of things they might have missed the first time.<

That's exactly how I feel about this cartoon. I can watch it twenty times and find something new each time.

I think that today's audience reflects the new techno-informative generation that is used to taking in tons of imagery every day, and unfortunately as a result of this, they rarely stop to savor any good visuals that are thrown at them. If you don't like this type of fast paced animation, that's fine, but just remember to watch it a couple of times to really enjoy what you are seeing, instead of blowing through it once and moving on.

Maybe some people are too used to watching animated shows nowadays with little to no aesthetic value to them, so they just can't handle something with "so much going on". More has happened in this one minute cartoon than an entire box set of Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

>But if all of electronic media moved at this pace and with this refreshing attitude toward public nudity, there wouldn't be time to kill the next generation overseas for the purpose of corporate oil profit.

I honestly can't stop watching it over and over. Unlike most, I like how fast it is, I love the fact that there are still some funny pictures that haven't registered, making mulitple viewings amazing. I like when you have to freeze frame to catch the funny pictures, it's kind of like an easter egg.

I watched it over many times, with and without sound. Can't say I'm that impressed.

Dazzling is good, but this is bombardment. Several moves and gestures don't attract the eye as much as they should because they're being bounced and jostled around too much. Jack's face sloshes all over the place, enough to make Disney's squashy-stretchiness look like anime.

There's nothing in the soundtrack that merits the amount of jumping and smashing around that I see here, except maybe after halfway through. Even one continous shot of Jack expressively crooning a full line like "If you think it's time to f**kin rock/And f**kin roll/Out of control" without freaking out would have made things smoother. Sometimes the video looks like it was cut to hide shortcomings, even though that's certainly not the case.

And the whole thing looks like Flash, what with those heavy black lines in the closeups. Also, the bounce up-and-down dance with the fists at 00:25 looks like it was partially tweened by computer - look at how his shoes distort without changing, and I see things going up and down without changing perspective. And his fists gain and lose volume in a way that make me suspect shape tweening in Flash. I noticed things like that in the Weird Al video too.

Oh, and color. Whaddya know - I see some of those poo and pee colors that you were talking about! Dig those sewer hues at 00:39 and 00:52, and maybe it's just me but the stage set looks nasty with that yellow plus the fart-ochre Kyle.

Enough blasting. Good parts: Nice multiplane-style perspective trucks. Great run cycle at 00:39.

And the whole thing must look much better on full interlaced video. Hope they play it on MuchMusic.

John, I guess by "gross-out" I meant "devil guy screwing a duck in the ear." The t-bagging, the monstrous french kiss, the boob fondle all pushed the line for my taste, but the devil crossed the line. Is this part of the movie? Does the devil have a purpose? Maybe I'm reacting to something out of context.

After the second time, I said to myself, oh, that's what he's doing, I see how it all comes together, nice work! Wow there's some great animation in there, especially Kyle hammering on that guitar!

After the first time I watched it, I said, what the hell is going on here, it's messy and a bombardment on the eyes. There's no fluidity here!

Final verdict:8/10

It's classic John K posing and animation with some great BG art thrown in. The boys at Copernicus did a great job converting all the poses to flash and smoothing it all out, however I feel that the internet version doesn't do it justice. Need to see a proper quicktime or it on broadcast.

I also feel that there are too many ideas being smashed down the viewer's eye sockets and that not all of the visuals read well. But that was only on the first viewing. During the second viewing it all melded together perfectly, upon my next watch I'm sure I'll enjoy it even more.

Perhaps John was a victim of too many quality ideas and having not the iron fist to cut some of them or slow them down a bit. Perhaps he planned on MTV like cutting and jamming it full of shit so that people would watch it over and over again?

I'm no expert, who is? The My Adventures with Cloe pilot is way fast and alot of gags don't read. (www.myadventureswithcloe.blogspot.com)

My main gripe is that it was far too short. That's a great compliment. BEcause we'll be watching it over and over again until the next one comes out!

>>I watched it over many times, with and without sound. Can't say I'm that impressed.<<

I'm sure it must be everyone's one and only goal to impress only you. The gestures and the "squashing and stetching" is in context and in beat to the music as far as I can see.

If it looks like Flash, that's because it IS Flash, genius. And it looks like the best Flash animation yet. The thick black lines in the close-ups are what real inkers do. Things that are closer have thicker lines (I'm surprised that God's gift to cartooning hadn't noticed that).

To any intelligent viewer, the poo and pee colors you're talking about would look more like muted browns, burnt sienna, and shades of gold, with many other hues and greys painted in for depth.

But what do I know? Everyone's completely ignorant until they have the priveledge of viewing your perfect cartoons, "Anonymous".

damn!!!! it goes by to fast!! i need a way to step frame it, I'm missing to many great wacked out drawings, especially the mouth shapes in the biggidy boo part(hey john can you post sections from that?). flippin hilarious!!!

"But what do I know? Everyone's completely ignorant until they have the priveledge of viewing your perfect cartoons, "Anonymous"."

What's with the hate? I think he had valid points. I don't nessesarily agree, but he wasn't saying anything irrational.

I loved the video. It doesn't bug me that it looks like flash, because the only way you know it's Flash is from Flash's appealing elements like the squashing and stretching and clean smooth digital lines. I can see how it can bug some traditionalists, but I personally love it. I wouldn't want to see Ren and Stimpy in Flash or anything, but for music videos like this it's perfect.

It was a little rapid for my taste, though. Sometimes it's just too hard to take in. I wish it was around 3 minutes, but for a 1 minute cartoon, a slow pace wouldn't have allowed for a much slower pace.

Some do, others add more detail. I still think the close-up lines are too thick for the frame. Page 69 in Frank and Ollie's Illusion Of Life book descibes how they dealt with line width and closeups, and I agree with what's in there.

Hey there John! Long time reader, first time poster. I have three questions:

Why was the cutting and pacing so quick and abstract that you'd have to watch it over and over again to know what's going on?

I believe it was you who said if everything's crazy then nothings crazy. Do you feel that's how this video comes off with every drawing extreme and caricatured? I didn't see a lot of subtlety or contrast.

And lastly, it seems you're on a brown kick now. From what I saw in your color examples, there are a few "clean" colors that tie the theory together rather than just browning up everything. I guess my third question is more of a comment. It felt a little too muddy.

Sorry if all these questions seem pointed. I'm a huge fan and have not posted before on your site. I guess I'm just starting to miss the heart your work used to have. Everything you did was clear, well thought out and, emotionally moving. It seems now that you are trying to "out weird" yourself with every consecutive drawing. Almost every pose is angled and pointy. Where’s the softness gone?

Wow, try to make a fun cartoon for everyone to enjoy, and people want to stab you with knives of extreme hate. People are certainly entitled to their opinions, But why all the vitriol? Is it jealousy of John's "name brand" success? Was this the cartoon equivalent of Tom cruise's couch jump? Will Rocky save Bullwinkle in time?! (I liked it, but I’m off my meds.)

Im so happy that I found this place. I've been a big fan of Ren & Stimpy for years. I live in the Netherlands (hence my shitty english)and it was first broadcasted here about 12 or 13 years ago. All these years Í've been praying that all the Ren & Stimpy cartoons will be released on DVD.

I finally received the Ren & Stimpy Lost episodes DVD last week.I almost shit my pants watching the hilarious cartoons. In the intro of this DVD you said that there were about 15 episodes that didn't make to tv. 6 of them are on this dvd now, but when will the other ones be released?

I found this site since you mentioned Katie Price's webpage on the dvd... then I found the link to your site via her site.

I read on Katie's blog that you sometimes go to conventions for signing sessions and stuff like that. Do you ever go to Europe for these kinds of things? I'll be the first in line if you'll ever come to Holland(the Netherlands).

I'm getting the keys of my new house next week. I'still don't know what to do with my walls. So I was wondering... what would the walls of a cartoonist like you be like. Did you draw anything on your walls? Got any tips for me?

Geez my msg is getting too long... Dun wanna sound like a psycho fanboy stalker so I better stop typing now. Keep up the great work and I'll check back regulary!

Overall I think your composition was effective--my eye moved continuously over each frame, not getting stuck on one or two elements.

In the scene wherein the lil' devil leaps over audience members (trying to prong their heads), you made proficient use of rhythm without succumbing to excessive repetition. In the same scene, however, when the devil finally humps the goosey character, it looked like kind of a loose fit.

The Tom & Jerry "eyes as transparent windows into a hollow head" gag works well enough, but I think it might've been more idiomatic had you tightened up the ears a bit--much as in 1940s WB cartoons in which a character cleans out his ears by pulling a towel through (the tight space within) his head.

As usual, fine attention to detail and craft. Strong work, typically orthogonal to comparable work in the genre. Keep up the good work.

These comments are insane! The guys just showing a project he did for a one minute song and youre getting these 11 paragraph ultra pedantic criticisms.

"Overall it was good but I feel that perhaps at the 33 second mark the facial expression was a tad deriviative of early tex avery work, perhaps if you did a bit more squash and held off the stretch you would have gotten your point across better? furthermore..."

Just checked out the video. Top notch! I don't get the haters though. They seem to be interpreting the lessons taught in this blog in their own distorted viewpoints. Try readin' carefully before bashing. First of all John went over the pacing issue in this Post.

This is a music video thus it has to fit the song. the song is quick and speedy. The images are speedy but I believe they read clearly. The human mind can read images quickly even at quick speeds when the animation and gags are clear and done well, and that is the case here. Now the internet player is not DVD quality but it's still pretty smooth.

Now about color, just becuase you use brown it doesn't make it poo. The brownish hues give a good contrast to the brightenss of the stage. The colors perfectly helps you read the audience shapes, which if you payed attention are supposed to be in a darkened theatre. It is not depressing. There are bright happy tints in the brown. I don't recall poo having bright happy tints unless your diet is really bad. Those are just some thoughts from viewing it a couple of times. I do wish they would have given John the title sequence like in troop beverly hills. Would of been nice to see some cool animation on the big screen again.

I must say this is actually growing on me, after multiple viewings. By multiple viewings, I mean about 20 times now, and I like it even more each time I see it. The song has been stuck in my head ever since.

Not a masterpiece or your best film ever, but still great fun with fantastic timing.